Town Emerges from a Swamp
This rural condition remained until the Railway extended into this community. The N&W Railway had decided to extend the banch line from the main line at Pulaski, Virginia, up New River and Chestnut Creek and on across the mountain to connect with the Railway at Mt. Airy, N.C., so as to give them a more direct route from the coal fields to the South, but they had only succeeded in getting trains running as far as Chestnut Yards when they secured a lease on the line from Roanoke to Winston-Salem that gave them the southern outlet, when they then abandoned the building of this branch line.
Mr. Carico in addition to managing the land company, helped to establish the First National Bank and became its president for a time; he also helped in establishing the Galax Fair Association and was for a long was also Mayor of the town for one or two terms.
J. B. Waugh moved his business and home to Galax and built the home where Mrs. Charles P. Waugh now resides, and his son, Dan B. Waugh, is now in business on the same corner occupied by his father.
R. E. Jones was one of the first comers to Galax and establlshed early the business of H. E. Jones & Son which is now carried on by his son, Walter, and grandson, Walter, Jr. He was also the first Postmaster in Galax and was also one of its first Mayors.
B. F. Calloway, a native of this section, and an attorney, came to make his home in town early and engineered the getting of the first charter for the town and became its first Mayor. He had charge of the land company for some time but finally moved to Salem, Virginia, where he resides at this time and is nearing his ninetieth birthday.
Much of the land where the town now is at its beginning was grown up in bushes along the branches and wet places in the lower bottom, and one particular place known as the bog or sink hole where no bottom could be found, was located near the W. K. Early & Son lumber yard and the Esso bulk stations. There have been many tales spun about this particular spot but the oldest one known was "That a boy was plowing near this spot when his horse or mule became frightened and bolted, running into this bog and sank out of sight, plow and all, and was never seen afterward."
It is well authenticated by older people that this bog could not be successfully navigated without carefully hopping from one tussock or stool to another and that a fence rail could be pushed down out of sight end-wise with the hands, the black watery muck was so fluid.
When the Railway was constructed to its present site, a canal was cut from this bog to the creek that lowered the water so that buildings are being erected on the place where this treacherous bog once existed.
It was belleved by the people interested in laying out the town that the business street would be what is now known as Center Street, so it was called Main Street and the street running north and south that is now Main Street was named Mt. Airy Street The names were changed and the street named Main in the beginning was changed to Center Street, and the Street name Mt. Airy was changed to Main Street as it is today.
The town was first called Bonaparte but the name did not seem to ring just right and it was seen that it would not be popular, so the name of Galax was decided on as this is the name given to an evergreen, that grows along the Blue Ridge adjacent to the town and is gathered and shipped to all parts of the country.
About Ghosts and Murderers.
Other old stories told about happenings near the present town of Galax are interesting.
This one concerns a haunted turn in the Old Pipers Gap Turnpike near where the road crosses the creek near the Carroll Furniture Company.
Near this turn in the road is a graveyard and this graveyard seemed to be the favorite staying place for this haunt which appeared in the form of a small dog that would wait for a lone rider that might have to pass that during the late hours of the night and proceed to jump on the horse behind the rider and accompany him to a point near the ford of the creek when it would leap off and disappear as mysteriously as it had appeared.
In the hill just east of the Carroll Furniture Company plant is a hollow where in the early days a farlily of Negroes lived, and in this cabin a Negro man was murdered, and as might be expected this locality became haunted. Travelers who had to pass along the road near this point late in the night, could see a bright light moving around in this hollow and a little bell would start tingling and follow them until they were well out of the vicinity of this tragedy. There were men in the community beyond this point who were allergic to haunts that could not be induced to go to Oldtown for a doctor at night because of having to pass this place.
One of the First Factories in Galax - A Cannery
Far and Few Between
At the time the town was being laid out there were no more than three dwellings in sight of the place on the west side of the creek and only two that I can think of on the east side of the creek.
The land purchased by the land company contained no roads or houses and there was nothing in the way to obstruct the laying out of the town, which accounts for its orderly appearance at the present time.
Until the laying out of the town of Galax, Oldtown had been the center of the surrounding country, from the time the county was cut off from the county of Wythe, about 1792, and all roads led to Oldtown.
